When a buyer purchases an item as part of an electronic commerce transaction (e.g., via a Web-accessible storefront on the Internet), the buyer typically communicates with a shipping carrier (e.g., FedEx, UPS, the Postal Service) through a merchant system. For example, when a buyer purchases an item on Walmart.com, the buyer can enter his shipping address via a Web page or other interface to an e-commerce system. This address will then be transmitted by the e-commerce system to the carrier for processing of the shipment, creation of the shipping label, and ultimately, delivery of the buyer's shipment.
Shipping carriers are adding features faster than the e-commerce sector can make them available to buyers. For example, a particular carrier may offer new shipping methods (e.g., for bulk shipments, for different delivery times, for appointment-based delivery), but it may take a significant engineering effort before these methods become available to buyers through the many different e-commerce systems. In many cases, e-commerce systems may simply elect to take a “least common denominator” approach, in which they offer a static set of shipping options that are available from most or all of the commonly used shipping carriers. In some cases, a buyer may know that a particular carrier has a shipping option, but not be able to communicate the desire to utilize this option. Such limitations may elevate levels of buyer frustration and reduce customer retention.
Furthermore, a buyer typically understands his or her shipping needs in better detail than does a given merchant, or at least the developers or engineers responsible for implementing the merchant's e-commerce system. A situation may thus arise in which one or more of the buyer, the shipping carrier, and/or the merchant's shipping department know that a particular shipping option (e.g., by appointment, hold at location) is available, but the Web site developer is either oblivious to this need or is unable to prioritize the development and incorporate the desired option into the buyer's user interface.
The lack of exposure of new shipping options often results in a negative feedback loop that may raise prices to buyers and inhibit the development of further shipping options. For example, a carrier may develop and offer a new, useful shipping option. However, due to the difficulties discussed above, e-commerce systems do not widely offer the option. Then, because the option is not widely offered, buyers do not select it, and the option is little used. Because the option is little used, its performance is not optimized by the shipping carrier, resulting in higher costs to the buyer for use of the option. In addition, the carrier becomes reluctant to develop further shipping options, in view of the lack of utilization and/or success of prior efforts to offer new shipping options.
In one approach to offering access to new shipping options, some systems allow a buyer to enter comments or special instructions to the merchant. However, this approach suffers from its own drawbacks. As an initial matter, the instructions are not machine-processed, meaning that they must be read and understood by a human, thereby incurring the risk of human error and/or delay. Furthermore, there may be no standard terminology or the terms used by the buyer may not be understandable to the merchant and/or the shipping carrier. Also, there exists the risk that the merchant will altogether neglect to transmit the information to the shipping carrier, as buyer-provided comments are generally not an information element that automatically flows from a merchant system to the shipping carrier.